Mets Hall of Famer's compliment of Paul Skenes carries a lot of weight

Pittsburgh Pirates rookie phenom Paul Skenes is the talk of baseball right now, and for good reason. The 22-year-old right-hander boasts an otherworldly pitch arsenal featuring his trademark "splinker" – a combination between a split-finger fastball and a sinker – and a fastball that regularly tops 100 mph.

Perhaps what truly makes Skenes a generational talent, though, is how he handles adversity and adjusts when his outings fall short of the pure filth we've come to expect.

New York Mets Hall of Famer and 11-time Gold Glove winner Keith Hernandez said as much after seeing the young phenom pitch during the first game of the Pirates' four-game series against the Mets Friday at PNC Park.

“He didn’t have his command, and what impressed me was how he battled through it,” Hernandez told Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Then, once in the middle of the game, when they gave him the lead, he found it. That’s the sign of a good pitcher.”

Hernandez: 'Pitching has always been the name of the game,' and Pirates have it

Skenes tossed seven innings of two-run baseball with eight strikeouts against the Mets, earning the 14-2 win after the Pirates' bats exploded for 10 runs between the seventh and eighth innings.

Hernandez, now a color commentator for the Mets, suggested that the Pirates' three-headed monster of Skenes, Mitch Keller and Jared Jones has early shades of the “dream rotation" of Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Matt Harvey, Steven Matz and Zack Wheeler that helped bring a World Series pennant to New York in 2015.

The road ahead for the Pirates could be an exciting one – that is, of course, if the team's ownership and front office can make the most of the window approaching.

“If you’ve got the talent, and they’re out there, they’re going to win you ball games,” Hernandez said. “Pitching has always been the name of the game. So if you have a wealth of pitching talent in the minor leagues, guys that you feel have a chance to be stars or good big-league pitchers, then you really have a chance of turning things around. I’ll take a good pitching staff over a good offense any day.”